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Authors: David Klatzow
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Iwas branded as somewhat of a forensic outlaw. This label was to be reinforced repeatedly in the following years, especially with regard to my growing involvement in fire investigations.
CHAPTER 4
THE ‘HIRED GUNS’ OF THE INSURANCE INDUSTRY
‘[There is a] myth that bureaucracies guided by scientific knowledge are efficient and benevolent.’
– IVAN ILLICH,
Austrian philosopher
Fire is a vivid manifestation of chemistry at work, and a very important part of forensic science. I had read a great deal about fires, but at this point in my career, in the early eighties, I had never actually investigated one. This was soon to change.
Each fire investigation presents a unique challenge: it is arguably one of the most demanding areas of forensic science, particularly with regard to finding and interpreting evidence. A fire can create misleading evidence, and it is easy, as the forensic scientist, to make a mistake.
Most solids do not burn; they must be heated before they will give off sufficient flammable gases, which will then ignite. Take, for instance, the familiar coal fire found in the living room of manyhomes. To light it, you need to place some paper under a quantity of thin wood kindling, and the coal has to be placed on top of all of this. The paper ignites easily, heating the wood to its ignition point, which in turn heats the coal to its ignition point. In the early stages of a fire, therefore, the principal form of heating is by convection – hot gas produced by the heating process must heat up nearby materials to their ignition temperature before they can catch alight. As hot gases rise – remember the hot air balloon – so the course of the fire will move upwards and outwards from the initial source.
Fire development always follows a pattern, which can be read and interpreted by the experienced observer. All too often, the arsonist performs his deeds as an act of desperation, or, in order to make sure of the total destruction of the property, he or she helps the fire along by using accelerants such as petrol or by setting multiple fires. These are the signs that we look for. When a fire has not developed normally, it is possible to document the actual development and to find out what the real cause of the fire was. It is also possible, using sophisticated equipment, to demonstrate the presence of accelerants.
There are very few things that burn away and leave no trace. In so many aspects, then, the investigation of a fire resembles an archaeological dig: it is by using the methods of the archaeologist that the investigator is able to reconstruct the scene and to interpret the causes and the origins of a fire properly.
My career in forensic fire investigation began in 1985, when a hotel in Middelburg burnt to the ground and I was approached by an insurance loss adjuster to investigate. My journey into the world of pyroforensics had started! I was to discover that the most common cause of fire is bank managers – the number of fires that occur after the bank has put financial pressure on a business is phenomenal.
I flung myself into this fire investigation with gusto, and the way in which I approached it became the general methodology for allof my subsequent investigations of fires. By sweeping the floors clean of debris, I was able to see clearly the fire patterns on the carpets. Long, narrow trails of burnt carpeting provided the first clue that an accelerant had been used in this particular fire. I interviewed the various players in the running of the hotel and those who had observed and fought the fire. When I compiled all the information, there was a clear indication that the fire had been deliberately started. This is what I reported to the insurers, and my first fire investigation was complete.
Within a short period of time, I was asked by a large insurance company to investigate another fire, this time a house that had burnt down in Ferndale, Johannesburg. I was able to excavate through all the
CHAPTER 4
THE ‘HIRED GUNS’ OF THE INSURANCE INDUSTRY
‘[There is a] myth that bureaucracies guided by scientific knowledge are efficient and benevolent.’
– IVAN ILLICH,
Austrian philosopher
Fire is a vivid manifestation of chemistry at work, and a very important part of forensic science. I had read a great deal about fires, but at this point in my career, in the early eighties, I had never actually investigated one. This was soon to change.
Each fire investigation presents a unique challenge: it is arguably one of the most demanding areas of forensic science, particularly with regard to finding and interpreting evidence. A fire can create misleading evidence, and it is easy, as the forensic scientist, to make a mistake.
Most solids do not burn; they must be heated before they will give off sufficient flammable gases, which will then ignite. Take, for instance, the familiar coal fire found in the living room of manyhomes. To light it, you need to place some paper under a quantity of thin wood kindling, and the coal has to be placed on top of all of this. The paper ignites easily, heating the wood to its ignition point, which in turn heats the coal to its ignition point. In the early stages of a fire, therefore, the principal form of heating is by convection – hot gas produced by the heating process must heat up nearby materials to their ignition temperature before they can catch alight. As hot gases rise – remember the hot air balloon – so the course of the fire will move upwards and outwards from the initial source.
Fire development always follows a pattern, which can be read and interpreted by the experienced observer. All too often, the arsonist performs his deeds as an act of desperation, or, in order to make sure of the total destruction of the property, he or she helps the fire along by using accelerants such as petrol or by setting multiple fires. These are the signs that we look for. When a fire has not developed normally, it is possible to document the actual development and to find out what the real cause of the fire was. It is also possible, using sophisticated equipment, to demonstrate the presence of accelerants.
There are very few things that burn away and leave no trace. In so many aspects, then, the investigation of a fire resembles an archaeological dig: it is by using the methods of the archaeologist that the investigator is able to reconstruct the scene and to interpret the causes and the origins of a fire properly.
My career in forensic fire investigation began in 1985, when a hotel in Middelburg burnt to the ground and I was approached by an insurance loss adjuster to investigate. My journey into the world of pyroforensics had started! I was to discover that the most common cause of fire is bank managers – the number of fires that occur after the bank has put financial pressure on a business is phenomenal.
I flung myself into this fire investigation with gusto, and the way in which I approached it became the general methodology for allof my subsequent investigations of fires. By sweeping the floors clean of debris, I was able to see clearly the fire patterns on the carpets. Long, narrow trails of burnt carpeting provided the first clue that an accelerant had been used in this particular fire. I interviewed the various players in the running of the hotel and those who had observed and fought the fire. When I compiled all the information, there was a clear indication that the fire had been deliberately started. This is what I reported to the insurers, and my first fire investigation was complete.
Within a short period of time, I was asked by a large insurance company to investigate another fire, this time a house that had burnt down in Ferndale, Johannesburg. I was able to excavate through all the
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